The Milwaukee Brewers made the decision prior to the regular season starting to designate Keston Hiura for assignment and because that was his first time being DFA’d he was unable to refuse a minor league assignment. He was once a promising prospect with a great hit tool, had some big league success, but strikeouts and defensive concerns led to him being shuttled back and forth between the major and minor leagues.
In the minor leagues this year Keston Hiura has excelled at the plate for the Nashville Sounds. He began the 2023 season by posting a .331/.396/.678/1.074 slash line with 12 home runs and 33 runs batted in through 32 games. Unfortunately a knee injury then sidelined him for six weeks.
Since returning he has maintained an impressive .312/.399/.570/.969 line, 23% strikeout rate, and has increased his home run total to 20. His 20 home runs, in the minor leagues, is higher than any current Milwaukee Brewers player.
Keston Hiura has more home runs this season than any current Milwaukee Brewers player.
The Brewers current home run leader is Willy Adames with 18. Christian Yelich is second with 16, Joey Wiemer third with 13, and then William Contreras and Rowdy Tellez are the only other players in double digits with 12 a piece.
As a team Milwaukee has just 127 home runs this season. This has them ranked 21st in that category. One season ago the Brewers had the third most home runs in the league with 219, so this is quite a drastic turn around.
At this time promoting Keston Hiura wouldn’t solve the Brewers offensive issues, but he could provide a much needed spark. In Los Angeles the Brewers scored three or fewer runs in a three game span for the fourth time this season. Before 2023 that had happened on just four instances since 2016.
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